When the shortest Matildas player on the park rose above the pack at the back post to head home a crucial and hard to come by goal against China a sense of relief coupled the pure exuberance from the achievement.
Clare Wheeler everyone.
Her celebration said it all. A player who had been on the bubble of a tight 18 woman squad shows why she made the cut. Perhaps some lesser one-eyed supporter would say her opportunity arrives due to the uncertainty surrounding Katrina Gorry’s race to be fit. However, anyone who has kept tabs on the Everton midfielder will know it’s time for her to make up more than numbers.
In a mid-table Everton team, Wheeler didn’t miss a regular season game, featuring in all 22 games and starting in 19 of those. In the true sense of a defensive midfielder, her attacking statistics aren’t eye-catching at all. What sets her apart is her defensive contributions, ability to provide an outlet for that first pass out of defence and positional awareness to intercept and disrupt play.
Only one assist last season, building off the single from the previous, doesn’t appear to be much but that’s not where her talent lies. It’s in playing the smart pass to the creative players already in the Matildas starting XI – such as Kyra Cooney-Cross, Mary Fowler and Steph Catley. Wheeler’s ability is knitting together the transition out of defence and into attack. Don’t be fooled, the 26-year-old also has the explosive long transitioning ball in her back pocket to open up play.
The wheels can fall off and look poor to the eye when those around her aren’t busy as it was in the first friendly against China. Pass and pass again was played between her and centre backs while seemingly there was no way forward. It’s not all bad, boring football though, there’s reasons it looked worse than a soggy chip.
Overall there was a lethargic feel from the whole squad for the first game of the international window. The midfield of Wheeler, Tameka Yallop and Emily van Egmond was untested and perhaps unlikely to be relied upon with Cooney-Cross and Gorry likely to come in and Fowler to play more centrally upon Caitlin Foord’s return. And the third strike was tactical experimentation to prepare for the Olympics.
The sense of relief from Wheeler shortly scoring after being subbed on following the trial of game one. She’s a player we hoped van Egmond could be in that deep lying playmaker sense, but with the ballsiness and grit that has seen Gorry excel in recent years as the midfield’s anchor. Her ability to sit in midfield will give Cooney-Cross, Gorry and van Egmond the opportunity to do what they do best – to create and to attack without worrying about who will cover them against a counter attack.
Wheeler is more than simply cover for the nearly irreplaceable Gorry – she’s a player who could solidify the centre of our midfield for years to come to provide defensive cover and an outlet to support our centre backs. The goal might have been a rare sight, but seeing Wheeler celebrate with all her heart won’t be.
It’s Wheeler’s time to shine.
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